Aurelia stared at the woman standing in the center of the room.
She couldn't breathe.
She couldn't blink.
She couldn't even look away.
The woman looked exactly like her.
Not similar.
Not almost identical.
Exactly.
Same eyes.
Same mouth.
Same small scar beneath the left side of her jaw.
Even the same silver mark on her wrist.
Rowan stepped closer to Aurelia.
"No."
The woman smiled.
"You're saying that because you don't want it to be true."
Rowan's voice hardened.
"Who are you?"
The woman looked at him.
"I already told her."
"You said hello."
"And she knows me."
Aurelia finally found her voice.
"You're not me."
The woman's smile disappeared.
"I know."
"Then who are you?"
The woman walked toward her.
"One of us."
Aurelia stepped backward.
"No."
The woman stopped.
"You've spent your whole life believing you were one person."
"I am one person."
"Are you?"
Aurelia's eyes narrowed.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
The woman pointed toward the silver pendant in Aurelia's hand.
"That pendant belonged to me first."
Aurelia looked down.
The silver surface suddenly felt cold against her palm.
"Then why did he give it to me?"
"Because he knew you were ready."
"For what?"
"To remember."
Aurelia shook her head.
"I already remember."
The woman laughed softly.
"No."
She pointed at Aurelia's head.
"You remember what they allowed you to remember."
Aurelia froze.
Rowan immediately looked at Mother.
"You knew about this."
Mother didn't answer.
"Mother."
Still nothing.
Rowan's jaw tightened.
"You knew."
Mother finally whispered,
"Yes."
Aurelia turned toward her.
"You knew there was another me?"
Mother's eyes filled with tears.
"Yes."
"And you never told me?"
"I couldn't."
"You could."
"No."
Mother shook her head.
"You weren't ready."
Aurelia's voice cracked.
"When was I supposed to be ready?"
"When you stopped searching for who you were."
Aurelia stared at her.
"And what am I supposed to be searching for now?"
The woman answered.
"Who you chose to become."
Silence filled the room.
Lena walked toward the woman.
"What's your name?"
The woman looked at her.
"Aurelia."
Lena's face went pale.
"Your name is Aurelia?"
"Yes."
"Then what does that make her?"
The woman looked at the real Aurelia.
"That depends on which one of us you believe."
Aurelia stepped forward.
"Enough."
Everyone became silent.
She looked directly at the woman.
"If you're really like me, prove it."
The woman nodded.
"Ask me something only you would know."
Aurelia thought for a moment.
Then she asked,
"What did I dream about the night before my seventh birthday?"
The woman answered immediately.
"A door."
Aurelia's expression changed.
"What color?"
"White."
"What was behind it?"
"Nothing."
Aurelia's heartbeat increased.
"What happened when I opened it?"
The woman's voice became softer.
"You heard someone crying."
Aurelia took another step backward.
"No one knows that."
The woman nodded.
"I know."
"How?"
"Because I was there."
Aurelia shook her head.
"You were a child."
"So were you."
The woman reached toward her own wrist.
She turned it over.
The same silver mark.
Then she looked at Aurelia.
"Do you remember what happened after the crying stopped?"
Aurelia couldn't answer.
The woman did.
"You saw yourself."
Aurelia's eyes widened.
"I saw a girl."
"Yes."
"She was standing behind the door."
"Yes."
"I thought it was a dream."
"It wasn't."
Aurelia's voice dropped.
"Who was she?"
The woman looked at her.
"Me."
The room seemed to tilt.
Aurelia grabbed Rowan's arm.
He steadied her.
"You're saying…"
The woman nodded.
"I was the girl you saw."
"But how?"
The woman looked toward Mother.
"Ask her."
Aurelia turned.
Mother lowered her head.
"I didn't know how to explain it."
"Try."
Mother took a slow breath.
"When Seraphine separated Memory, Consequence, and Choice, she discovered something."
"What?"
"Choice could not remain alone."
Aurelia frowned.
"It needed a vessel."
"Yes."
Mother looked at Aurelia.
"So they created two."
Lena whispered,
"Two?"
Mother nodded.
"One carried the ability to choose."
She pointed at the woman.
"The other carried the life that Choice was meant to protect."
Aurelia's face went cold.
"Which one am I?"
Mother hesitated.
"You are both."
Aurelia stared at her.
"That makes no sense."
"It doesn't have to."
Mother's voice trembled.
"Your lives were separated."
"How?"
"Memory."
The woman stepped forward.
"One of us was given the memories."
Aurelia looked at her.
"And the other?"
"Was given the life."
Aurelia's eyes widened.
"Then…"
The woman nodded.
"You were raised."
"And you?"
"I was hidden."
Aurelia stared at her.
"Where?"
"Here."
The woman gestured toward the room.
"Below everything."
Rowan looked around.
"For how long?"
The woman smiled sadly.
"Long enough to forget what sunlight feels like."
Aurelia's chest tightened.
"Why would they keep you here?"
"Because I remembered."
"Remembered what?"
"The first choice."
The room suddenly went silent.
Aurelia looked toward the black door.
"What was the first choice?"
The woman looked at her.
"To let one of us live."
Aurelia's heart stopped.
"What?"
Mother closed her eyes.
"The Council demanded that only one vessel survive."
Lena stared at Mother.
"And you chose?"
Mother's silence was answer enough.
Aurelia slowly turned toward her.
"You chose me."
Mother looked up.
"Yes."
Aurelia's face hardened.
"You left her here."
"I had no choice."
"There is always a choice."
Mother flinched.
The words echoed through the room.
The silver pendant in Aurelia's hand began to glow.
The woman looked at it.
"That's why they feared you."
Aurelia frowned.
"Why?"
"Because you're proving them wrong."
"How?"
"Because you're choosing for yourself."
Aurelia looked at the woman.
"Then why haven't you escaped?"
The woman smiled.
"Because I was waiting."
"For me?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"To give you something."
The woman reached behind her chair.
She pulled out a small black box.
She placed it on the floor.
Aurelia approached cautiously.
"What is that?"
"Your first memory."
Aurelia froze.
"My first memory?"
"The one they erased."
Rowan stepped closer.
"Don't open it."
Aurelia looked at him.
"Why?"
"Because we don't know what's inside."
The woman shook her head.
"You do."
Aurelia frowned.
"How?"
"You've already seen it."
Aurelia looked at the box.
A strange pressure formed behind her eyes.
A memory surfaced.
A room.
A woman crying.
A baby screaming.
A man shouting.
Then a voice.
Her own voice.
But she was older.
Much older.
The memory vanished.
Aurelia staggered.
Rowan caught her.
"What happened?"
She looked at the box.
"I saw…"
"What?"
"Myself."
The woman nodded.
"Exactly."
Aurelia slowly opened the box.
Inside was a photograph.
She picked it up.
Her hands began shaking.
It showed two little girls.
They were standing beside Mother.
One was Aurelia.
The other was the woman standing in front of her.
But something was wrong.
On the back of the photograph was a handwritten sentence.
Aurelia read it aloud.
ONLY ONE OF THEM KNOWS WHAT HAPPENED.
Lena stepped closer.
"What does that mean?"
Aurelia turned the photograph over.
There was another sentence underneath.
Her breathing stopped.
AND ONLY ONE OF THEM IS TELLING THE TRUTH.
Rowan looked at the woman.
She wasn't smiling anymore.
Aurelia slowly raised her eyes.
"Which one of us is lying?"
The woman didn't answer.
Mother did.
"I don't know."
Aurelia stared at her.
"You don't know?"
Mother's eyes filled with fear.
"No."
She pointed at the woman.
"Because she isn't the only one who was changed."
Aurelia felt a chill.
"What do you mean?"
Mother looked directly at her.
"When the Council separated you…"
She swallowed.
"They didn't create two Aurelias."
Aurelia's heart pounded.
"They created three."
Silence.
The woman stepped backward.
For the first time, genuine fear appeared on her face.
"No."
Mother nodded.
"Yes."
Lena whispered,
"Where is the third?"
Mother looked toward the black door.
Then toward the darkness behind them.
"She escaped."
Aurelia's grip tightened around the photograph.
"Where did she go?"
Mother's voice dropped to a whisper.
"Above."
Rowan's face changed.
"She's been living among us?"
"Yes."
"Who is she?"
Mother looked at Aurelia.
"I don't know."
Aurelia stared at the woman who looked exactly like her.
Then at the photograph.
Then toward the staircase leading back to the world above.
A terrible realization slowly formed.
If the third Aurelia had been living among them…
Then someone they trusted had never been who they believed.
The lights suddenly went out.
A scream echoed from somewhere above.
Lena froze.
"That came from upstairs."
Rowan drew closer to Aurelia.
Then a voice came through the darkness.
A woman's voice.
Calm.
Familiar.
And unmistakably Aurelia's.
"Don't trust her."
Aurelia's blood turned cold.
The voice continued.
"She's not the one you should be afraid of."
A pause.
Then...
"You should be afraid of me."
The lights came back on.
The woman standing in front of Aurelia was gone.
And the black door behind her was wide open.